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last week as I mentioned in Cigar Insider, Balmoral Maduro Torpedo scored a 92, and the rest of the maduro line closel followed. This week in the new CA I see for the first time at least for me, a full page add for Balmoral. Coincidence? Or something else at play? "I can't tell the difference between Whizzo Butter and this dead crab" (yes, nine out of ten housewives can't tell the difference between Whizzo Butter and this dead crab)

Guys and Gals- Let's form our own critics corner you might say. Here is how it works. We get on a e-mail list and twice a month everyone on the list participates by smoking a selected cigar chosen by the panel of members as being the smoke of that week. We select by having one member being the counsel who tabulates the results. E-mail me if anyone is interested, I did one in the past and it turned out being very informative as well as fun for those who love their cigars. I will send a edited list of how it works and rating scale with your input of course. E-mail address: [email protected]

I think there is a difference between Smoke and CA. Smoke sure out of favoritism may put a cigar up to be rated, but I believe the cigars sent to the reviewers are not identified, and their opinions are not tainted by advertising or favoritism. Whereas CA has so called senior tasters review cigars, and you know most of the time they can tell what cigar they are smoking, and it even becomes more obvious when they describe their findings, as for Cohiba, they said they were very disappointed in the taste of the Cohiba, like they new in advance it was a Cohiba they were smoking. Another thing I don't like about CA's ratings is that they very seldom give a rating lower than 79, and some of the cigars they describe are horrible, no redeeming qualitites, in my mind then that should get a rating of below 70 for the category of "don't waste your money".

I had heard that in order to get your cigar rated in CA that you first had to advertise in CA.

I have heard that rumour about advertising and CA myself. Consider the cigars never reviewed, Puros Indios is always reviewed, they advertise, Cuba Aliados, same maker, is never reviewed, doesn't advertise. Fuente is probably the heaviest advertiser, and their cigars consistently get the best reviews, granted though they are good cigars. But think a moment about the cigars you have, and how many don't ever get reviewed, I can name a number of brands. I know CA sticks their nose in the air to Lars Tetans and Acid, most of you here are probably happy about that.

Gordon and Marvin never smoked a dogrocket?!!!?...C'mon!!!..That is one of the reasons (CIgar Ratings) why I cancelled my three year subscription to that mag..Along with the (My gripe) so-called "New Look" of CA..Getting away from discussing news about cigars and writing more about Rolexes, Luncheons in Paris, custom-tailored suits, the emphasis on quotation marks "good things in life"..Things I and many others do not care about and will probably not ever experience..They cater to the people with the cash, just like their cigar ratings and advertisers (as Aberdeen mentioned above, so eloquently I might add)..I originally subscribed to CA because of the large quantity of information about cigars..Their new format has lost numerous readers because of their "progressive" changes..Thanks for letting me blow off some steam about this..Whew..I feel better:)

Yes, I did notice that...I also noticed that the twenty pages that are about cigars (of the twenty, ten or so are the cigar reviews) are in the back of the magazine..What a coincedence..Putting cigar aficionados in the back of a place, whether it be a restaurant or magazine, seems to be very popular nowadays.